


Once Upon a Dream

by Copperstown



Series: The One Direction Disney AU Extravaganza [3]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Alternate Universe, Disney AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-25
Updated: 2014-01-25
Packaged: 2018-01-09 22:27:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1151541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Copperstown/pseuds/Copperstown
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sleeping Beauty AU.</p><p> </p><p>The day that Louis realizes the sixteen years are almost up, he cleans every corner of the cottage. He tells Zayn it’s because his birthday is coming up soon, and they want the place to look nice, which is not exactly a complete lie, but it’s also not exactly the truth. Zayn seems to suspect so, but he doesn’t say anything. When Niall asks later, Louis tells him and Harry that he wants the cottage to be nice when they leave it. Also not exactly a lie, but not the full truth either.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once Upon a Dream

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wafflehood](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wafflehood/gifts).



The day that Louis realizes the sixteen years are almost up, he cleans every corner of the cottage. He tells Zayn it’s because his birthday is coming up soon, and they want the place to look nice, which is not exactly a complete lie, but it’s also not exactly the truth. Zayn seems to suspect so, but he doesn’t say anything. When Niall asks later, Louis tells him and Harry that he wants the cottage to be nice when they leave it. Also not exactly a lie, but not the full truth either.

Not that Louis is really all that sure why he suddenly had a dire need to clean the entire cottage.

On the day of Zayn’s birthday, they’re all excited when they wake up. They make Zayn a fabulous breakfast (as fabulous as it can be when you’re living in the middle of a forest, with no contact to other people), and when he goes out to pull weeds in their garden, Louis pulls out a sewing book.

“Wow, look at that tunic!” Harry says, pointing to a picture in the book.

“That’s the one I picked as well,” Louis grins.

“Fit for a prince, isn’t it?” Niall says.

“And he needs to look like one tonight, when we take him home,” Harry says with a nod.

“These sixteen years have gone by fast, huh?” Louis muses.

“I miss my little boy sometimes,” Niall sighs.

Zayn picks that moment to come in from the garden, and Harry scrambles to put the book behind his back so Zayn won’t see it. He’s not very subtle about it.

“What are you three up to?” Zayn asks, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Nothing, nothing, nothing at all,” Niall stammers out.

“Really?” Zayn raises a doubtful eyebrow.

“Why don’t you go pick some berries?” Louis asks, before Zayn can continue his inquisition and discovers their surprise.

“But I picked berries yesterday?” now Zayn sounds confused.

“Well, we used a lot for breakfast, so we need more,” Louis explains and shoves a basket into Zayn’s hand.

“Yes, many more berries,” Harry says quickly.

“Can’t get too many berries,” Niall comments. Zayn looks very confused as he heads to the door, but he leaves nonetheless, without asking any more questions. Louis thinks he might see something dawn on Zayn’s face, but he’s not sure, and Zayn is gone, waving at them, before he can get a better look.

“Right, let’s get started, shall we?” Louis asks, clapping his hands together.

“I’ll bake the cake!” Harry says immediately.

“But you can’t bake,” Niall frowns.

“He’s always wanted to bake a huge birthday cake,” Louis whispers. “Let’s just leave him to it.”

“Why don’t we just use magic?” Niall asks, sounding confused.

Louis freezes immediately.

They haven’t used magic in sixteen years. It’s gone pretty well, he thinks. The cottage is still standing, and they’re all well-fed. It hadn’t been too hard to figure it all out in the end. And by now, Louis is so used to doing things manually that he’d almost forgotten that he **could** use magic for the everyday things. Almost, but not quite. And it’s combined with the reason why they haven’t used magic for sixteen years.

“Are you insane? We can’t, Maleficent will find us!” Louis hisses.

“It’s been sixteen years and she hasn’t found us yet. Zayn’s sixteenth birthday is today, if she’s going to do anything, then she only has a few hours to find us and put her plan in motion,” Niall counters. “I think it’s safe enough, and none of us can sew a tunic like the one in the book.”

“We’re taking no chances,” Louis says sternly. “Now get over here, you can be the mannequin while I sew.”

 

Things are not going according to plan a few hours later.

“This is silly, we can’t do this!” Niall shouts. “I’m going to get the wands, and we’re going to make a tunic and a cake that will make Zayn happy, not something that he’ll be embarrassed to wear or get food poisoning from.”

“He has got a point, you know,” Harry says, and Louis relents.

Using magic again feels like floating. It makes things so much easier and prettier. The tunic actually looks like it should this time, and Harry’s ingredients know how to follow the instructions in the book, unlike Harry did. Niall gets rid of the bits of dirt and grime that Louis couldn’t get with manual labor, and the dust that has settled since his massive cleanup a few days ago.

“Hold up,” Niall says as he walks over to Louis. “I thought we were making the tunic blue?”

“No, we decided on red,” Louis replies.

“ **You** decided on red. I think it’d look better in blue,” Niall says, and with a wave of his wand, the tunic and the remaining fabrics turn shades of blue.

“Niall!” Louis shouts, but Niall has moved away again, giggling to himself. Louis waves his wand at the tunic. “Red.”

And then chaos falls around them.

Niall shoots rays of blue after Louis, and Louis shoots rays of red right back. It’s fun, like playing a children’s game, but it’s also a serious business, because by God Louis will not accept that they make the tunic blue. He hides behind chests and chairs as he and Niall battle it out. They manage to hit each other a few times, which makes for fun results. By some miracle, all their rays miss the tunic, except for the last two. The last two hit the tunic at the same time, and the result is that it looks like someone splashed red on one side and blue on the other.

“Now look what you’ve done!” Louis shouts.

“Hey, this was just as much you as it was me!” Niall protests as he crawls out from behind the chair he was using as cover.

“ _Uncle Louis! Uncle Niall! Uncle Harry!_ ”

“Zayn’s back!” Harry whispers. “Everyone hide!”

They all scramble behind the wall hiding the staircase to the upstairs rooms, and wait for Zayn to reach the door. “Wait, someone left the mop on!” Harry hisses and points to the offending object in question with his wand. A few sparks appear, and the mop drops to the floor. Louis hits the back of Niall’s head. It’s Niall’s fault, he was the one cleaning up. Niall rubs his head and glares up at Louis, but before they can say anything, the door bursts open.

“Uncles?” Zayn calls out while he takes off his cloak. He freezes in place with a gasp when he sees the tunic and cake.

“Surprise!” Louis, Harry, and Niall shout excitedly and jump out from their hiding place. Zayn jumps in surprise. “Happy birthday!”

“Wh – you guys!” Zayn laughs. “Thank you so much. This is beautiful.”

“It’s for the big event tonight,” Harry grins.

“Wait, so… you know?” Zayn asks with a frown. His lips are still quirked up in a smile, though.

Harry and Niall look like they’re about to answer in the affirmative, but Louis steps in before they can. “Know what, exactly?” he asks, because **Zayn** isn’t supposed to know. They’ve never told him, never even given him an inkling, only talked about it when he was out of the house, or they were, to make absolutely sure that he didn’t overhear. So before they can get into a rather embarrassing and confusing situation where they all think they’re talking about the same thing, but really they’re talking about two different things, Louis wants it cleared up.

Zayn gets a dopey smile on his face. “I met someone,” he says excitedly.

“What?” Harry, Niall, and Louis ask. This does not bode well.

“I the forest, just now! I met this guy, and he was amazing. And he didn’t seem like a stranger. I mean, we’d never met before, but it **felt** like we had. Like we’d met when we were young or, or in a dream,” Zayn gushes. It would be a hilarious thing to watch if not for the fact that it’s a big problem. “He’s going to come here tonight to meet you.”

Oh no. Oh dear.

Harry and Niall look just as stricken as Louis feels (and probably also looks).

“Zayn,” Harry starts. “He can’t come here tonight.”

“What? Why not?” Zayn frowns again, deeply.

“Because you won’t be here tonight,” Niall replies.

Zayn’s face falls immediately. He looks stricken and upset and confused, and Louis feels sorry for him. He almost wishes that they didn’t have to bring Zayn back to the king and queen tonight.

“But… why not? Where are we going?” Zayn asks. “Does it have to be tonight?”

“Yes, it does,” Harry replies, sounding sad.

“We’re taking you back home to your parents tonight,” Louis explains softly.

“My – my parents?” Zayn stutters.

“The king and queen,” Louis replies. Zayn’s jaw drops immediately, and his body isn’t far behind, sinking onto the chair with the tunic slowly. Given the situation, Louis lets it slide that he’s rumpling the fine and perfectly straightened tunic. “They’ve been looking forward to this night for sixteen years. They’re so excited to see you again.”

“The king and queen,” Zayn says, dazed. “The king and queen are my parents? **Our** king and queen?”

“Our king and queen,” Niall confirms.

“I’m their son? I’m a **prince**?” Zayn asks disbelievingly. Louis puts an arm around his shoulders and settles in for the long talk.

 

It feels completely, irrevocably, unabashedly **wrong** to leave Zayn to cry on his own in one of the most hidden and smallest guest chambers of the castle. His arms are crossed on the small desk in the middle, hiding his face, and his shoulder shake with silent sobs. Louis hesitates a moment before he closes the door, which is enough time for him to hear a small gasp as Zayn continues to cry. The sound nearly breaks Louis’ heart.

It’s been a very overwhelming day for Zayn. Overwhelming and upsetting.

Louis had spent the better part of two hours explaining everything to Zayn, with input from Harry and Niall underway. Mainly, they started packing up all their belongings, and since the secret was out now, they used magic to do it. Zayn went through an array of varying emotions, but none of them were particularly happy.

Especially when Louis explained that he had already been promised to a prince from a different kingdom and would most likely never see the guy from the forest again.

He’d eaten a piece of cake and gotten dressed in the new tunic with hunched shoulders and downcast eyes. For the entire walk through the forest and back to the castle, he’d kept his face ducked and hidden in the shadows of the hood on his cloak. As soon as they’d sat him down and put the crown on his head, his face had crumbled and he had leaned over the desk to cry.

Louis closes the door with a quiet snick and turns to Harry and Niall, who are both glancing worriedly at the door.

“Do you think he’ll be okay?” Niall asks.

“He will,” Harry says immediately, but he doesn’t look too sure of his answer. “He’s strong. He’s just had an overwhelming day.”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine. Eventually,” Louis says with a nod.

They settle down in the air by the window. It feels nice to float again. It’s been sixteen years, but sitting in the air is like second nature to them, and Louis enjoys the freedom of sitting down without anything hard underneath this ass. Harry conjures a pot of tea and a plate of sugar cookies, and he pours the tea for Louis and Niall.

“Let’s just have some tea and then we’ll go look in on him again,” he says when he pours for Niall.

Louis conjures a freshly printed newsletter so they can find out what the current state of the kingdom is, and they spend their little tea break discussing the pros and cons of the priests’ decision to make bigamy and concubines illegal.

“I don’t care what pressure concubines takes off the wife, or the head wife if a man has more than one woman, I still think it’s good,” Niall says, a tone of finality in his voice. “We’re one step closer to love ruling a marriage.”

“Yeah, and that can only be –”

“Stop!” Louis interrupts Harry loudly, jumping up from his sitting position. Harry and Niall both tense immediately.

“What is it?” Niall whispers.

“I think something’s wrong with Zayn,” Louis whispers back. It makes Harry and Niall jump up as well. They all land on the ground with a thump, and Louis throws the door open as soon as he reaches it.

Just in time to see Zayn disappear down a hallway in the fireplace, a pair of yellow eyes glowing smugly above it.

“ZAYN!” Louis screams, but Zayn doesn’t stop, and the hallway is blocked when the back wall of the fireplace reappears. Niall rushes forward, pounding his fists against the stone.

“Leave him alone, Maleficent!” he shouts. A cold chuckle is the only reply he gets.

“Hold on,” Louis says and pulls Niall back. With a wave of his wand, the back wall of the fireplace disappears again and the hallways Zayn disappeared down is open to them. They hurry in, wands held high to light up the narrow passageway. “Zayn!”

“Don’t touch anything, Zayn!” Harry shouts.

The search is frantic. There are stairs and hallways leading in different directions at every other turn, and they have no idea which way Zayn went – which way Maleficent lured him. They split up several times, but no matter how fast they are, there are still too many variables, and Louis’ heart is hammering at the realization that they might be too late. Zayn might be too deep under Maleficent’s spell to respond to their shouts and warnings, or he might even already have pricked his finger.

Eventually, they find a spiral staircase at the end of the main hallway and run up it as fast as they can. The sight that greets them at the top is worse than anything Louis could’ve ever imagined.

Maleficent is standing in the middle of the room in all her black, evil glory. Her gown and cloak and spread around her, and she’s holding her staff loosely in her right hand. She looks smug and self-satisfied. To her right is also a pitch black spinning wheel, and her left foot is resting on Zayn’s unconscious body.

He’s passed out, crown lying on the floor next to his head. His face is half hidden by the floor, and his bangs are falling over his closed eyes.

There’s a little bit of blood on his right index finger.

Niall lets out a noise of pure horror and anger. It only makes Maleficent smile wider and even more smugly.

“You tried so hard, and yet you couldn’t beat me,” she says. “I searched for him for sixteen years in every corner of the kingdom, and he was nowhere to be found. But of course, he was supposed to return to the castle today. Perfect time and place to finally make my move.”

“You evil, foul old witch!” Niall snarls, lurching forward, but Louis holds out a hand to stop him.

“Your prince is under my spell, and even if you changed it so he’s only asleep, not dead, he’s still not going to be conscious for a very long time,” Maleficent says. She takes her foot off Zayn and gathers her cloak more around her. “I don’t know about you but I think this is going to be quite a wonderful night for me.”

Niall throws a fiery red curse at her, but just a second before it reaches her, Maleficent taps her staff in the ground and she disappears in a puff of smoke.

Harry rushes forward and falls to his knees in front of Zayn’s lifeless body.

“We’ll take him to a bed somewhere,” Louis says. His voice is thick with the tears welling up in his eyes. “Somewhere hidden in the castle.”

Harry and Niall nod. “I know somewhere,” Niall says.

And so Louis and Harry carry Zayn while Niall leads the way to one of the towers at the back of the castle. They fly in though one of the large windows at the top, into what appears to be an old bedroom chamber. There’s a four-poster bed surrounded by heavy blue curtains. There’s a mound of pillows at the head of the bed and several soft blankets and covers. Everything looks fairly clean and maintained, but unused. How Niall knew about it, Louis doesn’t know, and Niall doesn’t say either. He just pulls back the covers on the bed so Harry and Louis can gently place Zayn on the mattress.

They cover him with the blankets and covers, his head and shoulders resting comfortably on the downy pillows. They cross his arms over his chest, and Niall places the dropped crown on his head again.

He looks so peaceful, just laying there on the bed. Louis reaches out and strokes some hair away from his face.

“We need to find the boy from the woods.”

 

Liam is covered in scratches, every muscle in his body aching, and there’s blood drying on his clothes and in his hair. He’s exhausted. The walk up the staircase to the top of the tower seems endless, and he almost wishes he could stop and take a rest on the steps. But it’s important that he gets to the top, it’s important that he gets **up there** , so he forces himself to keep walking, one painful step at a time, one foot in front of the other.

As soon as he gets to the top, the exhaustion disappears from his body and bones and is replaced with exhilaration.

Zayn looks peaceful and princely, asleep on a four-poster surrounded by curtains. He looks nothing like the peasant boy he had been in the woods, and yet he looks exactly the same. His face is the same, tan and soft, black hair falling around his face.

Liam steps forward, closer to the bed, closer to Zayn. He stops momentarily when he reaches it, and then he sits down on the edge of the mattress and just **looks** for a moment. Zayn is the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen. Kissing him to lift the curse will be no hardship on Liam’s part, so he doesn’t hesitate any longer to lean down, ignoring the whisper in the back of his head that he might not be Zayn’s one true love, and might not be the right person to break the spell. There had been an instinct connection between them in the woods. It has to work.

It’s wonderful, when their lips meet. It’s also a little weird, because Zayn isn’t kissing him back, which is the only reason why Liam manages to keep the kiss short and sweet.

As soon as he pulls back, Zayn’s eyes flutter open.

“Thank god,” Liam exhales. Zayn smiles softly at him.

“Thank you,” he whispers.

“No need, darling,” Liam replies, leaning down to kiss him again. This time Zayn reciprocates, and the kiss is amazing. Liam’s hands are busy holding him up, so he can’t run them through Zayn’s hair or anything, but Zayn’s hands aren’t preoccupied, so they end up in Liam’s hair.

Which is also what makes Zayn let out a small noise and pull back. He studies Liam’s face and body with a light frown.

“Don’t you look swell,” he says sarcastically.

“Hey now, I’ve been fighting dragons and hawthorn bushes. I’ve had a rough night, unlike you,” Liam says defensively, although they’re both smiling. “You’ve just been laying there sleeping, while I’ve been out doing hard work.”

“Excuse me, I was hypnotized and cursed,” Zayn huffs.

“Yes, and excuse me, I was out trying to kill the witch who did those things to you so I could save you,” Liam says. Zayn lets out a laugh, wrapping an arm around Liam’s neck, the other around his lower back, and pulls Liam down forcefully enough to make him lose his balance. It knocks the air out of them briefly when Liam falls on Zayn’s chest, but neither of them care. They’re kissing again.

They’re kissing, and Liam feels light knowing that he will have this for the rest of his life. He could break the curse, which means that he is, without a doubt, Zayn’s true love. Which is a good thing, since they’ve been engaged since they were newborns.

When Liam tells Zayn this, Zayn laughs again and rolls his eyes, and they don’t care that they’re meant to be going down to the banquet hall.

They want to savor this moment.


End file.
